I'm begging WWE to once and for all stop doing angles involving even the slightest hint of racism.
That way I never have to read Wade Keller bitch and moan about it ever again.
Everytime anything happens on Raw or Smackdown that even slightly, subtly hints of racism, the Torch is abuzz for the next week talking about it like it's an apocolyptic occurence. Before you know it, there'll be like 10 headlines on their site debating over whether a certain angle or comment was racist or not. The debate will rage on for days.
Case in point: Randy Orton's comment to Shelton Benjamin last week on Raw that "you people" are "uppity". Simply by the inflection in Randy's voice, it was obvious that the comment was done (get this) FOR THE SHEER PURPOSE OF PROVOKING MORONS ON THE NET INTO BITCHING ABOUT IT BEING RACIST. The very moment that I heard Randy say that, in the tone that he said it in, my first thought was that that very comment would be the subject of Torch articles and feedback for about the next five days. After that thought, I honestly totally forgot about the comment because the show was so good. Raw two weeks ago was one of the most enjoyable shows I've seen in ages; you'd think that any self-respecting wrestling fan would've simply been able to get on and enjoy the show and not brood about three words which were obviously meant to provoke them.
You'd think that; and you'd be wrong.
I got on the net the next day, was chatting with a friend, and she informed me of all the rants and raves going on at Keller's site about Randy's little comment. I went to the site to check it out myself and was absolutely amazed and disgusted. Within 24 hours, there were already FOUR HEADLINES on the site devoted entirely to the subject of racism in WWE. Keller had posted a bitching editorial about it, and then there were three pages worth of feedback from those brilliant Torch readers.
Keller, in his column, included this jewel of a feedback in his editorial:
"Writes PWTorch.com reader Mark Brown: "I'm glad somebody noticed the continuing racist garbage in WWE. May I point out how it always seems to come from someone connected with Triple H? At this point, I believe that he's racist. It's happened too often, and now he's got Orton with him."
Somebody threw blood in the water, and of course the first target the sharks (or would that be "sheep"?) go for is Triple H. This excerpt pissed me off to no end. I can think of more than enough "racist garbage" in WWE that is not connected in any way to Hunter- such as the Guerrero/Bradshaw feud, anything that ever came out of Teddy Long's mouth up until he was traded to Smackdown, just to name a few. How the hell does some moron- even a Torch moron- draw a conclusion that Triple H is a racist based off the fact that another member of Evolution made a questionable comment? The Booker T storyline last year was scripted, asshole. Get a life.
Now, let's examine some more gems from the feedback which Keller received.
"In all honesty, I was more taken aback last night by Jim Ross's and Jerry Lawler's failure to acknowledge Orton's remark than the remark itself. Neither man uttered a word in response to Orton's comment, and I think that sat a bit sour on my stomach"
Exactly, JR and the King didn't say anything after Randy's comment, which further adds weight to my theory that the comment was only even made to stir up people like Wade Keller. When Hunter was cutting promos with racism-tinged remarks at Booker T last year, Ross and Lawler definitely had plenty of comments to make afterward. Their silence last Monday tells me that it was intended for them to stay silent, to let people draw from the comment what they would. WWE probably gets a kick out of reading idiots like Keller pop a blood vessel everytime they do something like this. I find it amusing as well.
"It's almost as if Vince saw the cheap heat a mid-card heel like Bradshaw could pull in with his anti-Mexican drivel and decided to have other heels in the company follow suit with similar material."
This rocket scientist obviously hasn't been watching wrestling for very long. As though WWE "just now" decided to start injecting racism into storylines. They've been doing it for YEARS. I can remember being a little kid and watching Roddy Piper painting himself half black to wrestle Bad News Brown, I remember IRS mocking Tatanka's Native American heritage every week during their feud, and I'm sure most fans who were watching during the original DX era can recall the storyline where the Nation's locker-room was vandalized with racial slurs and messages and blamed on the Hart Foundation. It's nothing new, people, get a clue. Watch some old tapes or something.
Now on to a feedback which hit the nail on the head; I'm posting this in its entirety because I thoroughly enjoyed it:
"Boy, we just can't wait to jump on someone for being racist, can we? What in world are you trying to prove by declaring your offense and disgust by what came out of wrestlers' mouths on WWE television this past week? You don't seem to get too upset when the WWE portrays women as objects. You don't make a stand when wrestlers use foul language and make lewd remarks on camera in front of children. Yet whenever someone mentions something regarding race... holy mackerel, everyone's ready to erupt like a volcano.
I just find it funny that someone can week after week sit down and watch a show that is, by nature, morally defunct - but will cry "bloody murder" when something even mildly racist pops up on the television set.
Wade, no offense, but you don't seem to enjoy these shows too much. Maybe you should take a couple of months off from watching WWE programming. If you keep watching, you're just going to see more of the same stuff that offends you so much."
WHAM. Dead on. You see, this is NOT the first time that Keller and the Torch have gone up in arms over a supposedly racist comment. A couple years ago, Steve Austin made fun of Booker T for using the word "axe" instead of "ask", and the very next day Keller had an editorial up- a damnably long one- theorizing that it was racist and how dare Austin say something like that and blah blah blah, just like he did this time. That editorial was followed by about three separate pages of feedback debating on the topic, which were then followed by two guest editorials- one saying the comment was racist and declaring WWE to be the spawn of Satan, and the second saying it wasn't and that people needed to lighten the hell up- and then these two editorials were followed up by yet MORE BLOODY PAGES OF FEEDBACK. These clowns just LOVE this subject. Keller FEEDS off of this stuff. If WWE actually did stop having racism in their shows, he wouldn't have a damn thing to write about anymore!
And by the way... where was Wade's racism rant after the Malcolm X-like character of Teddy Long debuted on Raw? Here we had a whole character built entirely around racism, out in the open, clear as day... and Wade had nothing to say. In other words, Keller loves to make mountains out of molehills. He'll spend all day picking apart some miniscule comment from Steve Austin or Randy Orton, to spark a controversy and bring him lots of ass-kissing feedback, but when a character like Teddy Long, or a feud like Guerrero/Bradshaw comes along, he has relatively little to say.
Am I advocating racism in WWE storylines/characters? No. I'm not advocating it, and at the same time I'm not against it. I just frankly do not give a shit. You'll find worse racism in 90% of the crap that comes on cable television these days. There are times when I hear or see something involving racism on Raw or Smackdown that makes me cringe, but for the most part I'm not offended at all. So the purpose of this editorial is not to either condone or condemn racism in wrestling; the purpose of this editorial is basically to say that Wade Keller sucks and needs to get a friggin' life. We got the point a long time ago, Wade, you don't like underlying racist meaning in comments, but you can tolerate racist characters and storylines. You make very little sense and you just want attention. Do us all a favor: drop the moral crusade and get a new topic.